How can I reference external data providers in phpunit?

I am trying to run some tests using a common data provider in PHPUnit.

See below test:

    namespace AppBundle\Tests\Controller;

    use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Test\WebTestCase;
    use AppBundle\Tests\DataProvider\XmlDataProvider;

    class DefaultControllerTest extends WebTestCase
    {
        /**
         * @dataProvider XmlDataProvider::xmlProvider
         * @covers ReceiveController::receiveAction()
         * @param string
         */
        public function testReceive($xml)
        {
            $client = static::createClient([], ['HTTP_HOST' => 'mt.host']);
            $client->request(
                'POST',
                '/receive',
                [],
                [],
                [],
                $xml
            );

            $response = $client->getResponse();
            $this->assertEquals(200, $response->getStatusCode());
        }
    }

Now I want an external data provider class:

namespace AppBundle\Tests\DataProvider;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Test\WebTestCase;

class XmlDataProvider extends WebTestCase
{
    /**
     * @dataProvider
     */
    public static function xmlProvider()
    {
        return array([
            'xml1' => '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><myTestableXml></myTestableXml>'
        ]);
    }
}

But when I run phpunit I get:

1) Warning The data provider specified for AppBundle\Tests\Controller\DefaultControllerTest::testReceive is invalid. Class XmlDataProvider does not exist

2) Warning No tests found in class "AppBundle\Tests\DataProvider\XmlDataProvider".

How do I do this?

UPDATE

composer.json autoload snippet for reference:

"autoload": {
    "psr-4": {
        "AppBundle\\": "src/AppBundle",
        "Tests\\": "tests"
    },
    "classmap": [
        "app/AppKernel.php",
        "app/AppCache.php"
    ]
},
"autoload-dev": {
    "psr-4": {
        "Tests\\": "tests/"
    },
    "files": [
        "vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/VarDumper/Resources/functions/dump.php"
    ]
},

Solution

You need to reference the data provider using the fully-qualified classname:

namespace AppBundle\Tests\Controller;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Test\WebTestCase;

class DefaultControllerTest extends WebTestCase
{
    /**
     * @dataProvider \AppBundle\Tests\DataProvider\XmlDataProvider::xmlProvider
     * @covers ReceiveController::receiveAction()
     * @param string $xml
     */
    public function testReceive($xml)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Autoloading

Also, make sure to adjust your autoload configuration in composer.json, so the data provider can be autoloaded (might need adjustment depending on which directory the ’AppBundle\Test` namespace maps to):

{
    "autoload-dev": {
        "psr-4": {
            "AppBundle\\Tests\\": "tests/"
        }
    }
}

Alternatively, since you suggest your autoloading configuration looks like this:

{
    "autoload-dev": {
        "psr-4": {
            "Tests\\": "tests/"
        }
    }
}

you need to adjust your namespace for the presented tests from AppBundle\Tests to Tests\AppBundle.

Note Unrelated to your question, but personally, I can't see a need for the data provider to extend WebTestCase.

For examples, see: